


How It Should Have Ended

by Sotheylived



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/F, Fix-It, Fluff, True Love, True Love's Kiss
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-20
Updated: 2016-04-20
Packaged: 2018-06-03 11:58:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6609856
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sotheylived/pseuds/Sotheylived
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Fix-it fic for 5x18. Where a certain girl from Kansas doesn't get in the way.</p>
            </blockquote>





	How It Should Have Ended

“There’s supposed to be a lot of singing here,” Ruby says as they trudge through a much darker Oz than the one she’d pictured. “Well there was in the movie,” she shrugs.  
  
“I still don’t know what a movie is,” Mulan says with a hint of frustration as she leads the way further down the path. 

Ruby smiles, sometimes out here she forgets that Mulan wasn’t cursed in Storybrooke too. “It’s a sort of,” she raises her hands up before aborting the gesture. “I guess it’s like a painting that moves to perform a play.”

“Oh,” Mulan says, stopping to look at Ruby, “and there’s one of these movies,” she speaks slowly as if tasting of the word and Ruby finds herself biting back a grin, “about Oz?" 

"Yes, nearly everyone from the Enchanted Forest has one too.” Ruby starts walking again and Mulan follows.  

“Neal mentioned something about that,” Mulan says with her brow furrowing. “He said there’s one about me?" 

Ruby nods, eyes skittering away from Mulan as she does so. "Yeah, your movie was actually always my favorite." 

She has memories of snuggling up with Granny as a kid and watching it. She knows those memories are false of course, but even after the curse broke she must have watched it a half dozen times.

"Really?” Mulan asks, sounding just a bit smug.

“Oh shush,” Ruby says, knocking her shoulder into Mulan’s. 

“Perhaps,” Mulan says haltingly, “if we ever find ourselves back in Storybrooke-” 

Mulan cuts off abruptly as Ruby grabs her arm, stopping her from walking further. “Do you hear that?” she asks. 

Mulan nods as the low growl gets closer. Ruby feels the wolf’s hackles rise within her, urging her to forsake the cloak and deal with whatever beast approaches in another form, but Mulan’s arm beneath her hand is an anchor and she leaves the cloak in place. A moment later a dog comes bounding onto the path followed by a woman who can be none other than Dorothy. She seems more ornery than her movie counterpart, but Ruby can’t exactly talk. 

One stolen dog and movie worthy villainous speech later, Ruby finds herself brewing a potion in the middle of the forest with one more companion than she started with. 

“Now all we’re missing is poppy seeds,” Mulan says. Her head is tilted over the potion and her hair’s slipped down, now resting in her face. Ruby’s hands clench at her sides.  

“I’ll go,” Dorothy volunteers, grabbing her crossbow and swiftly walking away from their camp. 

Ruby glances at Mulan then hikes up her skirts after Dorothy. “I’m coming with you,” she says, unsure as to why the thought of being alone with Mulan has her skin prickling. 

Dorothy agrees only begrudgingly and soon they’re trekking through the forest together. After a few failed attempts at getting the other woman to talk, Ruby finally breaks through, though of course the woman turns the tables on her quickly. 

“What about you,” Dorothy asks, bending down to pick one of the flowers. “Why are you in Oz?”

“I wanted to find my pack - where I belong,” Ruby shrugs, looking off into the forest, “at least I thought I did." 

Dorothy smiles as they begin walking back, "and now you’re not so sure?”

Ruby shrugs again. She keeps her eyes on the trees, scanning for flying monkeys and she can’t help but be at least a little surprised that the witch put up no resistance when she supposedly has eyes everywhere. 

“I just,” she begins, chancing a glance at the other woman, “I guess I don’t feel that sort of homesickness - that feeling of missing something - anymore now that I’m traveling with Mulan. But that’s stupid because it’s not like I didn’t have plenty of friends in Storybrooke. And I thought,” her voice goes a little dry and she clears her throat, “I thought that maybe what I was missing was being home in the Enchanted Forest, but that can’t be right because Oz is not my home, but I still feel - I don’t know I still feel at home here and I know that doesn’t make any sense but -" 

"Of course that makes sense,” Dorothy says, rolling her eyes as she steps over an overturned log. “It makes sense to anyone who has eyes, Ruby. Your home isn’t a place." 

It takes a moment for Dorothy’s words to register, and when they do she stops abruptly, nearly causing Dorothy to run into her. "Oh my god you’re right." 

Dorothy rolls her eyes and gives her a shove forward. "I know,” she says, good naturedly. “Perhaps you should do something about it." 

Ruby nods, eyes wide. She has felt off balance ever since arriving in Oz, and it’s only now that she realizes it’s because that longing didn’t come back even when they left the Enchanted Forest. Ruby takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly to calm her racing heart. When they step into the clearing a moment later the panic in her blood is for an entirely different reason.  

Their camp is in disarray and it is clear that a fight took place here - one that Mulan lost. 

* * *

_The Underworld_ , the words are a shock when she hears them and she wonders just how powerful of a tracking spell she must have used if it was able to bring her here. And while she’s happy to see Snow and the whole gang of heroes again, she can’t focus on anything other than the dread and panic thrumming through her veins. 

A sleeping curse. Mulan is under a sleeping curse. Ruby walks into the diner in a daze, the words pounds into her awareness coupled with the knowledge that Mulan has no one who can wake her. 

She normally feels safe in the diner, but it’s a jolting realization that the place isn’t hers when she sees the witch behind the counter. Ruby’s throat burns as the urge to cry bubbles up within her.

Ruby rushes to the back hall, away from the wrong woman standing behind the counter, away from prying eyes. In the back hall she can almost pretend that she’s back in Storybrooke and everything’s okay. A moment later Ruby hears footsteps and looks up to see Snow walk into the hall. When her eyes meet Snow’s all the emotions she’s been holding back come rushing forward.

"There’s no one to wake her up,” she says, turning to Snow pleadingly. Tears well in her eyes and she blinks them back furiously. She needs her friend to tell her that it’ll be okay. 

Snow smiles at her gently and Ruby takes deep gulping breaths of air to calm herself. 

“Maybe not _no one_ ,” Snow says, reaching out a hand to place on her shoulder.   
Ruby’s head snaps up to meet Snow’s gaze, eyes wide. “Don’t look so surprised,” Snow says, “You’re my best friend, I think I know you well enough to know when you’re in love." 

Ruby’s heart swells with hope, and what is it about this woman that can make even the most desolate find hope. 

But even with the seedlings of hope sprouting in her chest Ruby finds herself shaking her head. "I don’t know if she feels the same." 

"Well,” Snow says as if the answer is as easy as breathing, “that’s exactly why you have to try." 

One magic slipper journey later and both Ruby and Snow are out of the Underworld and back to Oz. Ruby’s breath catches in her throat as she sees Mulan laying prone with a small crowd around her. 

"I think it’s time you woke her up Wolfie,” Dorothy says with a smile. 

Ruby’s feet feel glued to the ground and Snow gives her a little shove from behind in encouragement. The audience is intimidating and Ruby can feel the heavy weight of their gazes as she steps up to Mulan. Her heart feels as though it’s about to burst free from her chest and she feels a little bubble of panic that it might not work. 

With a fortifying breath she bends down and brings her lips to Mulan’s. For a moment nothing happens, then she feels the unmistakable jolt of _magic_ pulse through her. 

Ruby pulls back shyly as Mulan catches her eye. She can’t believe she ever though it wouldn’t work, because how could she not see the _love_ in Mulan’s gaze. 

“Ruby,” Mulan says and _god_ how did she not realize it from the way Mulan said her name? “You saved me?”

“What can I say,” Ruby says, face breaking out in a wonderful joyous smile, “I have a thing for damsels in distress." 

In that moment, Ruby is fairly certain that Mulan’s laugh is the best noise she’s ever heard in her life. That is, until they Mulan surges up beneath her and captures her lips, choking back a moan. 

And it’s then that Ruby realizes _this_ is what they mean when they say happily ever after.


End file.
